Venture

Even if geological conditions for the presence of hydrocarbons are promising, host country political and fiscal conditions must also be favourable for the commercial success of exploration ventures. Distance to potential markets, existence of an infrastructure, and availability of a skilled workforce are further parameters which need to be evaluated before a long term commitment can be made. 

The production phase commences with the first commercial quantities of hydrocarbons ( first oil ) flowing through the wellhead. This marks the turning point from a cash flow point of view, since from now on cash is generated and can be used to pay back the prior investments, or may be made available for new projects. Minimising the time between the start of an exploration campaign and first oil is one of the most important goals in any new venture. 

Given the costs of exploration ventures it is clear that much effort will be expended to avoid failure. A variety of disciplines are drawn in such as geology, geophysics. 

The objective of any exploration venture is to find new volumes of hydrocarbons at a low cost and in a short period of time. Exploration budgets are in direct competition with acquisition opportunities. If a company spends more money finding oil than it would have had to spend buying the equivalent amount in the market place there is little Incentive to continue exploration. Conversely, a company which manages to find new reserves at low cost has a significant competitive edge since it can afford more exploration, find and develop reservoirs more profitably, and can target and develop smaller prospects. 

The industry is increasingly acknowledging the value of oontractors and service companies in improving their individual core capabilities through alliances, i.e. a joint venture for a particular project or a number of projects. A lead contractor e.g. a drilling company may form alliances with a number of sub contractors to be able to cover a wider spectrum of activities e.g. completions, workovers and well interventions. 

From an overall economic viewpoint, any investment proposal may be considered as an activity which initially absorbs funds and later generates money. The funds may be raised from loan capital or from shareholders capital, and the net (after tax and costs) money generated may be used to repay interest on loans and loan capital, with the balance being due to the shareholders. The shareholders profit can either be paid out as dividends, or reinvested in the company to fund the existing venture or new ventures. The following diagram indicates the overall flow of funds for a proposed project. The detailed cash movements are contained within the box labelled the project . 

If the company is fully self-financing for its new ventures, then the appropriate discount rate would be the rate of return of the alternative investment opportunities (e.g. other projects) since this opportunity is foregone by undertaking the proposed project. This represents the opportunity cost of the capital. It is assumed that the return from the alternative projects is at least equal to the cost of capital to the company (otherwise the alternative projects should not be undertaken). 

The oil company will also be required to periodically submit reports to the national oil company (NOG) or government, and to partners in the venture. These typically include ... 

The economic lifetime was introduced in Section 13.3, and was defined as the point at which the annual cashflow turned permanently negative. This is the time at which income from production no longer exceeds the costs of production, and marks the point when decommissioning should occur, since it does not make economic sense to continue to run a loss-making venture. Technically, the production of hydrocarbons could continue beyond this point but only by accepting financial losses. There are two ways to defer decommissioning ... 

Since then, the application of methods of computer science, or informatics as it is called in many languages, to the solution of chemical problems has ventured into many more areas of chemistry. So broad are the applications of informatics, and its foundation, mathematics, in chemistry that no longer can any single conference cover the entire field. 

Best Synthetic Methods is now 10 years old, is a family of 16 volumes and has been well received by the majority of chemists as a valuable aid in their synthetic endeavours, be they academic or commercial. The focus of the series so far has been on special methods, reagents or techniques. This volume is the first of a new sub-series with a focus on heterocycles and their synthesis. It is amazing the extent to which each heterocyclic type has its own specialized synthetic methodology. Whether the chemist is endeavouring to make a heterocycle by ring synthesis or wishes to introduce specific substituents, it is the intention that this new development will serve their needs in a practical, authoritative, fully illustrative and compact manner. Richard Sundberg is an authority on indole chemistry and it is a pleasure to have such a noted heterocyclist to initiate this venture. 

The business plan needs to provide projections of aimual production. Based on those estimates and assumed food conversion rates (food conversion is calculated by determining the amount of feed consumed by the animals for each kilogram of weight gain), an estimate of feed costs can be made. For many aquaculture ventures, between 40 and 50% of the variable costs involved in aquaculture can be attributed to feed. 

Aquaculturists may elect to purchase animals for stocking or maintain their own broodstock and hatchery. The decision may rest on such factors as the availabihty and cost of fry fish, post-larval fish, oyster spat, or other eady life history stages in the location selected for the aquaculture venture. 

Land purchases and many of the costs associated with faciUty development can be accompHshed with long-term loans of 15 to 30 years. Equipment such as pumps and tmcks are usually depreciated over a few years and are funded with shorter-term loans. Operating expenses for such items as feed, chemicals, fuel, utilities, salaries, taxes, and insurance may require periodic short-term loans to keep the business solvent. The projected income should be based on a reaUstic estimate of farmgate value of the product and an accurate assessment of anticipated production. Each business plan should project income and expenses projected over the term of all loans in order to demonstrate to the lending agency or venture capitaUst that there is a high probabiUty the investment will be repaid. 

Supply and demand statistics for 1988 for all regions of the wodd as compiled by SRI International are given in Table 5. The wodd producers of acetal resins and their aimual capacities are Hsted in Table 6 (29). Hoechst Celanese and Ultraform Corporation (a joint venture of Degussa and BASF) have aimounced capacity expansions in the United States to 77,000 t and 16,000 t, respectively both were due in place in 1990. Part of general capacity expansion plans, aimounced by Du Pont for completion in 1991, are beHeved to apply to acetal resins. 

Joint venture, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical and Tongyoung Nylon Plants are beheved to be located in the USSR and Poland. 

Ma.nufa.cture. AU. manufacturers of butynediol use formaldehyde ethynylation processes. The earliest entrant was BASF, which, as successor to I. G. Farben, continued operations at Ludwigshafen, FRG, after World War II. Later BASF also set up a U.S. plant at Geismar, La. The first company to manufacture in the United States was GAF in 1956 at Calvert City, Ky., and later at Texas City, Tex., and Seadrift, Tex. The most recent U.S. manufacturer is Du Pont, which went on stream at La Porte, Tex., about 1969. Joint ventures of GAF and Hbls in Mad, Germany, and of Du Pont and Idemitsu in Chiba, Japan, are the newest producers. 

Because of projected nylon-6,6 growth of 4—10% (167) per year in the Far East, several companies have announced plans for that area. A Rhc ne-Poulenc/Oriental Chemical Industry joint venture (Kofran) announced a 1991 startup for a 50,000-t/yr plant in Onsan, South Korea (168,169). Asahi announced plans for a 15,000-t/yr expansion of adipic acid capacity at their Nobeoka complex in late 1989, accompanied by a 60,000-t/yr cyclohexanol plant at Mizushima based on their new cyclohexene hydration technology (170). In early 1990 the Du Pont Company announced plans for a major nylon-6,6 complex for Singapore, including a 90,000-t/yr adipic acid plant due to start up in 1993 (167). Plans or negotiations for other adipic acid capacity in the area include Formosa Plastics (Taiwan) (171) and BASF-Hyundai Petrochemical (South Korea) (167). Adipic acid is a truly worldwide... 

Dedicated Vehicles. Only Brazil and California have continued implementing alcohols in the transportation sector. The BraziUan program, the largest alternative fuel program in the world, used about 7.5% of oil equivalent of ethanol in 1987 (equivalent to 150,000 bbl of cmde oil per day). In 1987 about 4 million vehicles operated on 100% ethanol and 94% of all new vehicles purchased that year were ethanol-fueled. About 25% of Brazil s light-duty vehicle fleet (10) operate on alcohol. The leading BraziUan OEMs are Autolatina (a joint venture of Volkswagen and Ford), GM, and Fiat. Vehicles are manufactured and marketed in Brazil. 

The Ziegler process, based on reactions discovered in the 1950s, produces predorninandy linear, primary alcohols having an even number of carbon atoms. The process was commercialized by Continental Oil Company in the United States in 1962, by Condea Petrochemie in West Germany (a joint venture of Continental Oil Company and Deutsche Erdid, A.G.) in 1964, by Ethyl Corporation in the United States in 1965, and by the USSR in 1983. 

Oy Tech MonopolarE,lectroly rs. OxyTech Systems (a joint venture company of Occidental Chemical and Eltech Systems) suppHes monopolar diaphragm electrolyzers of two designs the OxyTech "Hooker" H-Type (27,28) shown in Figure 11 and the "Diamond" MDC-Type (28,29) in Figure 12. 

A worldwide Hst of spandex fiber and related elastomer producers is shown in Table 2. Most process developments have occurred in the United States, Germany, Japan, and Korea. A large proportion of worldwide capacity is controlled by Du Pont, either directly or through subsidiaries and joint ventures. These include three plants in North America, two in South America, two in Europe, and two in Asia. 

The acquisition of the rights to the viscose process became one of the most profitable investments of aU time. Interest in the new fiber was intense, and growth of production capacity was exponential. By 1907, the Courtauld company was selling aU the artificial sHk it could produce and proceeded to expand into the U.S. market. In 1910 they formed the American Viscose Co. and in 1911 started the first U.S. viscose factory at Marcus Hook. By 1939, Courtaulds had six factories in the United States, seven in the United Kingdom, one in Erance, one in Canada, and joint ventures in Germany and Italy. 

Data-Star. This is Europe s leading on-line database service (39) and covers worldwide business news, financial information, market research, trade statistics, business analysis, healthcare / pharmaceuticals, chemicals / petrochemicals, chemical industry, biomedicine /life science, biotechnology, and technology, with an emphasis on Europe. It was originally formed as a joint venture among BRS, Predicasts, and Radio Suisse (the Swiss telecommunications company) (37). Data-Star offers access to about 300 bibliographic, abstract, directory, and fuU-text on-line databases, of which approximately 150 are also available on Dialog (40). 

Flame-Retardant Filler. Demand has increased for Mg(OH)2 as a nonhalogenated, flame-retardant filler for thermoplastics used in the aerospace, microelectronics, and cable and wire manufacturing industries (90). Producers of nonhalogenated, flame retardant fillers include Kyowa, Aluisuisse-Lonza (Magnifin product line), Morton, and a Dead Sea Periclase/Dead Sea Bromine joint venture (91). 

The classic strategies are weU known acquisition, internal development, licensing, and joint ventures. 

Joint ventures are recommended if the respective companies have complementary strengths. Eor example, one may have the process, the other the raw materials, a strong position in the market, or an appropriate geographic location. 

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